This invention relates to a coin feeding device, and more particularly, to such a device for properly feeding a plurality of coins and medals (hereinafter, "coins") to a chute communicating with the outside of the device.
Recently, demand for a coin feeding device has been increasing in various environments such as a gamehouse or a playhouse. Typical coin feeding device of the type described is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 63-36040 to the same applicant as the present invention. The coin feeding device comprises, a base plate, a scraper arrangement, a hollow cylindrical case, a coin feeding disc, an outlet, a coin counter, and a driving unit. A plurality of coins are mounted on one end of the base plate and delivered, one by one, by means of the coin feeding disc. The scraper arrangement scrapes the delivered coins from the coin feeding disc towards the other end of said base plate along a predetermined coin feeding path. More particularly, the scraper arrangement comprises a main rotating body and a coin feeding wing unit. The main rotating body is rotatably mounted on the base plate. The coin feeding wing unit or finger assembly has a plurality of wings or fingers which extend radially outwardly from the main rotating body. In this manner, the wings or fingers feed the coins to the other end of the base plate by means of rotation of the main rotating body. The coin counter is arranged besides the outlet to count the coin to be thrown out of the coin feeding device. The counter is operatively connected to an actuating lever and a switching roller. When the number of coins reaches a predetermined amount, electricity to the driving unit (e.g. an electric motor) is immediately interrupted. Simultaneously, rotation of a main rotating body is stopped by means of a damping device, as described in, for example, Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 63-49802 to the same applicant as the present invention. Thus, the predetermined number of coins are to be thrown out.
However, in the conventional coin feeding device as described above, the coins delivered to the outlet by the scraper arrangement continue to move due to its inertia force after the rotation of the main rotating body is stopped. As a consequence, when such inertia force is relatively large, the coin pushes the actuating lever aside and is thrown out of the device. That is, an overabundant coin is thrown out. On the other hand, in case where the inertia force is relatively small, the actuating lever is pushed back due to the returning force of a return spring attached to the actuating lever through the switching roller is actuated. This causes incorrect counting.
In particular, recent tendency of the coin feeding device demands reduction of the necessary time which is required for feeding a plurality coins staying in the game machine with respect to psychological desire of game players and managerial desire of playhouse managers. In order to satisfy such requirements, the rotation speed of the driving unit is increased. As a result, the above mentioned problems have been magnified because of the inertia force.
In order to solve the above mentioned problems, the applicant of the present invention had tried using a spring having a large spring constant as the aforementioned return spring. However, this only overcomes the problems regarding to the excessive feeding of the coin and incorrect counting for the thrown out coins. Other problems have been occurred such as destortion of the actuating lever because of the overloading thereon.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a coin feeding device which perfectly avoid the excessive feeding of the coin and incorrect counting for the coins.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be clear as the description proceeds.